For some reason, I don’t like using the sewing machine at night. It may have something to do with the lighting where my sewing machine is but, whatever the reason, I do try to avoid it in the evenings. So while I worked on The Walled Garden during the days on Saturday and Sunday, during the evenings I needed something to work on by  hand.

Along with working on the 2.5″ LeMoyne Stars for the Octagon Stars, I couldn’t resist — needed a fix of a little curved piecing so out came the apple cores from the swap. So far I’m being pretty good about just using whatever piece I pick out of the bag and keeping this totally unplanned, but if a colour is too close to the one it’s going to be beside then I do pull out a different one.

I’m grading the seams as I add cores and pressing after each set of two is joined. I think this will grow rather quickly, once I get back into the swing of it. And then out will come my Red Delicious apple core project, which has been languishing for a while — a very long time.

The Octagon Stars project has jumped to the top of the queue. I think it will go together fairly quickly now. And while working on the little doll bed quilt, I will also be auditioning fabrics for the border of The Walled Garden.

Even though we saw snowflakes yesterday — yes, you read that right — Baxter and his friends are ready for spring and are posing as flower kitties. Snowflakes on April Fools day seemed like a very nasty joke to me!

Snowflakes or not, there have been birds to be seen and he has been spending lots of time on his kitty tree perch. He’s going to be 2 this month, and I think he’s starting to look like an adult kitty — at least in this photo, he has a real adult look to him.